Album Notes

Songs old and new, bursting with life. The title track celebrates the universality of music and our own fleeting existence. Diane's setting of Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill" captures the magic of childhood, and "The Children's Hour" provides Longfellow's poem with one of Diane's most transcendent melodies. "The Sea-Serpent of Cape Ann" honors the chanteys of old as Diane tells of New England's version of the Loch Ness monster and muses on why the creature hasn't been spotted lately. "The Wreck of the Caspian" is based on a true story of a dramatic shipwreck off the Florida Keys in 1857, in which a resourceful mother saves the ship's company by using a ball of twine and a little dog. (You can't make stuff like this up!) We visit old Quebec with "Les Filles du Roi" and two traditional songs in which Diane weaves together the French and her own English translations. Irish and Scottish songs round out this trip through time, plus a fun version of "Froggie Went a-Courtin'."